Sunday, March 2, 2014

When I Met William Shatner

The Shat

In
July of last year I had a chance to meet my geek idol, William Shatner. He was
appearing at a show called Fandomfest in Louisville, Kentucky. It was not a
disappointment.

Growing
up, Star Trek was my all-time favorite show, and is still a huge favorite. Sure,
you can say Shatner was wooden or had strange staccato pauses in his delivery
... I didn’t care then and I don’t now. I just love the guy, quirky or no. His
Captain Kirk was one of the manliest characters ever on television, and
definitely appealed to women, green and otherwise.

The
convention line in the morning was actually not bad. The great Stan Lee's line
dwarfed Shatner's but they were still moving folks through quickly. People were
highly discouraged from talking to the celebs, but I thought I would try it and
see if I could engage him for a moment. I handed Shatner the Captain Kirk photo
I had for him to autograph. I politely told him I enjoyed his books on CD and
his performances of them. He stared a me for a millisecond as if I were pond
scum, signed the photo, muttered "Thank you," in a small voice and
looked behind me to the next person. That may sound somewhat mean, but I loved
it. Shatner has always struck me as an aloof, not friendly (not necessarily
unfriendly) person. And I dined out on that story for a month or so, so I'm
happy.